The Immortal Sergio Oliva
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The Immortal Sergio Oliva
As an ongoing series, I thought it would be fun and educational to analyze the training of great bodybuilders of the past. This is purely for my own Bro enjoyment, and perhaps you will enjoy it as well.
To kick things off, This is Sergio Oliva.
Arguably the most genetically gifted bodybuilder of all time, he was Mr. Olympia from 1967-1969, and displayed a physique that has not been equaled in sheer absurdity of proportions to this day.
Oliva only lost the Mr. Olympia title to Arnold, and according to many contemporaries at the time, Sergio should have beaten Arnold more than once.
Oliva was a black, spanish speaking immigrant from Cuba who had defected to the United States while competing for the Cuban Olympic lifting team. He was a sullen personality, and while his physique was otherwordly, Joe Weider did not consider himremotely marketable. When Arnold came along, Weider finally had someone who could reasonably compete with Sergio and Weider made Arnold a the bodybuilding star.
Bodybuilding lore aside, I wanted to talk about Sergio because his training regimen is the stuff of legend, and is a great example of the high volume training style that was popular during the Golden Era.
Sergio trained 6 days a week, for 2 hours a day.
When he first came to the USA, he first lived in Miami, but then moved to Chicago, where he became a steelworker, and later worked in a stockyard and became a butcher. Although he later became a cop with the city of Chicago, that was not until 1976.
During his peak years as a competitive bodybuilder, he worked 12 hour days, and would train at night after getting off work. His endurance and recovery capacity were elite, because his training regimen was high volume and every workout was 20+ sets.
I share this as an example to teach a few lessons
Volume training can and does work for some people. Oliva clearly had the genetics that benefitted from a high volume approach
Training at the highest level is individualized. Find what works for you. Oliva certainly did
Its fun to appreciate the upper limits of human potential. Oliva was a true freak of nature
Lets now Analyze Sergios Training
At first glance, Sergios training looks overwhelming, but with more discerning eyes, its not as crazy as it looks.
Sergio himself said that he trained for the PUMP. He loved to get skin splitting, burning pumps and feeling like had filled his muscles to the bursting with blood.
Because of that, he did not train particularly heavy. He was certainly capable of using some heavy weights, but he liked to use a “Ramping” training style, doing multiple, same rep sets of an exercise, and increasing the weight each set.
Ironically this training style would likely be dismissed as junk volume today, but it clearly worked for Sergio. This was a common way to train during the Golden era. Only the last 1-2 sets of an exercise would be done “heavy”, and many sets would be done, with short rest between each to keep the pump going.
We also see that Sergio used a rather small repertoire of exercises. He stuck with the same barbell and dumbbell exercises, and the only two bodyweight movements were dips and chinups.
Sergio Oliva’s Training - His ONLY TRUE 6-day a week training split
Monday – chest, back, shoulders
Superset bench press with wide-grip pullups
Set 1 bench 185x8 chin 15-reps
Set 2 bench 225x8 chin 15-reps
Set 3 bench 265x8 chin 10-reps
Set 4 bench 305x8 chin 10-reps
Set 5 bench 325x8 chin 8-reps
Set 6 bench 355x8 chin 8-reps
Set 7 bench 385x8 chin 5-reps
Superset
dumbbell flyes 5 sets of 15 reps; work up to a pair of 80s
dips 5 sets of 15 reps; weighted, work to 100# hung on dip belt
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-Here we see the first example of the ramping style.
Doing 8 rep sets of bench all the way to 185 to 385 is rather ridiculous, as only the last two sets must have been somewhat challenging for him.
But he bench pressed twice a week, and did this tactic on both days. No doubt after the bench pressing, those DB flyes and Dips must have been highly stimulating.
We see he also apparently did a similar ramping style of training for flyes and dips. He started light, and then his last sets were heavy.
Regardless if all the sets were hard or not, the entire workout is 24 sets. 17 sets for chest, and the 7 sets of chinups for back. I assume he counted the chest exercises as shoulder exercises as well because they trained the anterior deltoid.
The chinups were apparently done to failure on every set, as Sergio took short rest periods while supersetting. For as wide as his back was, Sergio never trained his back particularly “heavy”.
Tuesday – shoulders & arms
Overhead barbell press (taken out of the racks) 5 sets of 15 reps working up to 205x15
super-sets
Standing barbell curl 5 sets of 5 reps working up to 205x5
Lying triceps extension 5 sets of 5 reps working up to 205x5
Scott (preacher bench) curl w/barbell 5 sets of 10 reps working up to 155x10
Seated overhead dumbbell triceps extension 5 sets of 5 reps working up to 60-pound dumbbells
Scott (preacher bench) curl w/dumbbells 5 sets of 5 reps working up to a pair of 60s
Triceps cable pushdowns 5 sets of 10 reps working up to the entire weight stack
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What stands out immediately is how the heck did Sergio train triceps the day after training chest with 17 sets? Surely his triceps were tired from the day before? If we add all the exercises that worked triceps, Sergio did almost 60 sets a week of direct and indirect tricep stimulating exercises. Maybe thats why his arms were so big (try it as your own risk)
That aside, the workout is quite basic. Sergio exclusively did barbell and DB pressing for his shoulders, and works up to topset of 205x15. That would put his 1RM press at around 315 lbs.
The Bicep and tricep work is entirely supersetted. He clearly liked preacher curls, and the triceps exercise were the ones popular in this era; skullcrushers, overhead extensions with DBs, and the reliable tricep cable pushdown. What is strange is the low reps. 5 reps on arms is typically subpar for getting a pump, but it seemed to work for him.
5 sets for shoulders
15 sets for biceps
15 sets for triceps
Wednesday – abs, thighs & calves
Sit-ups 10 sets of 50 reps
leg raises 5 sets of 20 reps
side-bends 5 sets of 200 (45-pound bar behind neck, bend to each side)
squats 315x5, 405x5, 455x5, 475x5, 505x5
calf raise 315 pounds for 10 sets of 8 reps
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So…this is 1,600 reps of ab exercises. Followed by 5 sets of squats, going up to 505. And then 10 sets of calf raises with 315 lbs (this was likely done in a smith machine).
Ive never heard of anyone else doing 1,6000 reps for abs and then training legs, but this is Sergios routine that he claimed to do during the early 1970s, so lets take him at his work.
High volume, high rep ab workouts were popular during this era. You cannot say it was bullshit either, everyone had small waists and shredded abdominals. That said, 500 reps of situps, 100 reps of leg raises is already a lot reps. Then he does side bends (which if anything would have made his waists thicker) for 1000 more reps.
That his leg workout is only 5 sets of squats followed by heavy calf raises seems quaint, but the weights are heavy. Sergio was a superb squatter by all accounts, and it seems his lower body did not require nearly the same amount of sets as his upper body to grow.
20 sets of abs
5 sets of squats
10 sets for calves
Thursday - chest, shoulders, lats
Bench Press 205 x 5, 225 x 5, 265 x 5, 305 x 5, 325 x 5, 355 x 5, 385 x 5
Super-set
Press Behind the Neck 5 sets of 5 reps working up to 250 x 5
Rowing Machine 5 sets of 10 reps working up to 205 x 10
Dumbbell press seated 5 sets of 10 reps working up to 80s
Barbell row 5 sets of 8 reps working up to 275
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Again, we see the ramping bench press. this time for sets of 5 reps, instead of 8. This does not not seem like it would have been challenging, but Sergio took short rest periods, so you’d certainly be pumped up the end of it.
The two following supersets are basic in design: 5 sets of shoulder pressing, 5 sets of horizontal rows.
The Behind the Neck press is rarely done today, but when it works, it can work fantastic, and 250lbs is heavy weight to be using. Sergio follows that with more shoulder pressing, this time with DBs, and then what I assume was bent over barbell rows, with heavy poundage. This was the ONLY back exercise he did that used heavy weight. Yet his back looked like this
7 sets for chest, and then 10 sets each for shoulders and back.
Friday - arms, lats
Super-set
Narrow-grip triceps press 3 sets of 5 reps working up to 205 x 5
Standing barbell curls 3 sets of 5 reps working up to 205 x 5
E-Z curl bar triceps press 3 sets of 5 reps working up to 205 x 5
Preacher bench curls 3 sets of 5 reps working up to 205 x 5
Preacher bench dumbbell 3 sets of 5 reps working up to 50s x 5
Preacher bench tricep press 3 sets of 5 reps working up to 50s x 5
Chin, under-grip for biceps 3 sets of 10 reps working up to 50s x 5
Tricep pushdown 3 sets of 10 reps working up to 50s x 5
Chin behind neck 5 sets of 5-10 reps
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Sergio continues the pattern of training arms right after chest and shoulders. On this day, he did most exercises for 3 sets of 5. This was his heavy arm day.
Interestingly, he does more back work as well, this time with 3 sets of chinups (which also work biceps), and then the odd set of behind the neck pullups to finish the workout. It works out to 15 sets each for biceps and triceps, and then 8 sets for back.
Saturday – abs, thighs & calves
Sit-ups 5 sets of 10 reps (weighted)
Leg raises 5 sets of 10 reps
Side bends with 45-pounds 5 sets of 50 reps
Squats 8 sets working up to 405 x 10 then 3 sets of 20-reps with 250
Front squat 5 sets of 10 working up to 205
Sitting calf raise 5 sets of 5 reps working up to 200
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Only 350 reps of ab exercises in this workout. Weighted crunches are a good exercises, as are leg raises. The side bends I think are stupid, but he was Mr. Olympia, so why argue about it.
The leg workout again is basic as it gets, LOTS of squatting. 16 total sets of squats.
8 sets working up to 405 by 10, and then 3 sets of 20 with 250.
He did 20 rep squats, three times.
And then did front squats after (with an oddly light 205) for five more sets.
But then does seated calf raises, for 5 sets of 5 reps. Which Ive never seen anyone benefit from 5 rep sets on calves, but his calves were huge.
Overall, its one of those workouts that no one in bodybuilding does today. Its not “science and evidence” based. 16 sets of squatting, nothing for hamstrings. No deadlifts, no hip extension.
But during this era, having big legs was NOT a priority. No one had freaky glutes and hamstrings and adductors, the emphasis was largely on quads, which Sergio obviously had.
So while I this workout would not be recommended in our modern era, you also cant deny that it worked. He had massive quads and his lower body and upper body proportions were superb.
What does all that add up to?
I counted up the exercises based on the direct sets done for each major muscle group. It looks like this.
170 total sets per week.
24 sets for chest
25 sets for back
30 sets for triceps
30 sets for biceps
15 sets for shoulders
21 sets of squats for legs
15 sets for calves
0 sets for hamstrings
25 sets and almost 2000 reps for abs